In Sickness And Health
by MissGuenever
Summary: The Captain deals with a sick crewmember; another toe into the Caroline 'verse.  Not quite a full story; but, more than a drabble.  Takes place after the visit to Hillard, you don't need to have read Extra Cargo; but, it'll help.


**A/N:** A special thank you to Gaben for betaing and putting up with my obsessiveness! And thanks to everyone for sticking with me through my big gap. I just can't quite bring myself to write the last chapter. So instead here is another little interlude, a toe into the Caroline 'verse. This one falls between chapters eight and nine; after exploring Hillard and before "It was a Dark and Stormy Night and Captain said to his Daughter…"

And huge thank yous to everyone who reads, reviews, favorites, and alerts: AcheillesMonkey, basaltone, bballgirl31, Bits1212, bladefax, domial, The Frisky Firelily, Gaben, jsmudge (where are you? I'm worried), MTCS, and RionaEire you all make the Rocket World go round!

**Chapter 8a**: In Sickness And Health

Mal was pretty surprised when Caroline fell asleep right after dinner. But, he supposed that her adventures coupled with the extra chores he'd given her 'cause of the pick pocketing, had done tired her right out. She'd passed out in the common area on 'Nara's lap. He'd tucked her in, without even so much as a bath. The bath which for her and Kaylee (or sometimes Inara, and occasionally Zoë) had become a beloved routine for the little girl with splashing, lots of laughing, and sometime bubbles and bath toys.

Mal stared at Serenity's books for a little bit; this job for Lou Hiao tong would put them in the black for while which would be nice. It was nice to have a milk-run for change; didn't happen near 'nough, as most of the time they were scrappin' for survival on the edge of civilization.

The Captain looked over at his daughter's bunk with the castle and animals and sky painted all over it. She was curled up in a little ball clutching Zoey, the horse. All was good in the world, well mostly good. He just needed to make sure that they could stay in the positive until Lou Hiao tong paid them; that and the whole stealing-pickpocketing thing that had gotten them the Ident cards could be put behind them. Mal closed his eyes for a moment as he listened to the slow steady breathing of his sleeping nǚ hair, daughter. Life was good.

"_Medic, medic. I need a medic at my position! Copy?" Mal listened to Zoë yelling into the comm unit as he put pressure on the Corporal's chest wound. "Medic!"The helplessness that Sergeant Reynolds felt as he put pressure on Cpl Lincoln's chest grew as heard the desperateness in his second-in-command's voice grow. The wheezing and whimpering from Lincoln got louder._

The whimpering got louder and Mal jerked awake realizing that it wasn't Teddy Bear, as they called Tae Bing Lincoln that was whimpering it was Caroline.

"Baobei what's wrong?" He gently asked his daughter as he stretched and inwardly moaned; sleeping at his desk wasn't good for his back.

"My belly hurts. An' I'm cold."

Mal put his hand on Caroline's forehead, like he remembered his ma doin' to him. She was burning up. As he turned to head over to the comm unit to call the Doc, Caroline threw up all over him.

"I'm sorry bah." His daughter moaned piteously; shaking a little. "The bits just won't stay down."

Mal handed a garbage can over to the bedside with one hand; took off his rather disgusting shirt; and managed to smack the comm button frantically all at about the same time. "Doc! Doc! Get down here!"

Mal managed to get mostly changed with only one 'episode of spewance' as he'd called it when he was a kid. Simon showed up as the Cap'n was wiping Caroline's face with a towel and trying to convince her to sip some water.

Simon kind of spilled down the ladderwell with his red med-kit and River behind him. He'd obviously been getting ready for bed; his hair was kind of damp and sticking out in spots. River was looking like… Well, River. At least it didn't look like she was in her crazy place.

"What? What's wrong?" Simon was worried; Serenity's Captain was usually pretty calm about most things. He saw Caroline clutching the garbage can and looking pale.

"She's burning up, and throwing up?" Mal pointed at his daughter who was rather green around the gills as she began another round of retching; he dropped quickly to her side and rubbed circles on her back crooning soft nonsense words into her ear, all the while feeling helpless that he couldn't do anything to make her feel better.

Simon snapped into triage mode. He felt her head; yes, she had a quite a fever. About one hundred and one degrees, not dangerous; but, definitely not comfortable. "Tell me where it hurts, Caroline."

Caroline looked up at the man she usually considered a bad, bad man. "My belly hurts."

Simon opened his med-kit and grabbed the appropriate tools to listen to Caroline's chest, stomach, and lungs.

After a few "Big breaths."And "Ahhh… Umm…" And one: "Open your mouth wide." And then a "Say Ahhh…" Simon turned to Mal and said "She has a stomach bug; it isn't serious. I'll give her something for the nausea. The fever will probably break by morning; but, it is her body's way of fighting the sickness."

"How? How'd she catch it and none of us did?" Mal wanted to know all the while cuddling his nǚ hair, daughter. Simon took one of Caroline's arms and injected a syringe of anti-nausea medication into her system; she was sick enough she didn't complain which surprised Mal. He figgured that even sick she'd still complain about him getting' near her, especially with a needle.

Simon placed his instruments back into the red zipper bag. "A lot of reasons; she's never been on Hillard before and doesn't…"

"Kids get sick." River interrupted her brother before he could go off a medical tangent that only Simon would find interesting.

Simon and Mal both looked at River. Simon nodded. "In a few words; yes, children get sick. It is one of the ways that they develop immunities. It is also why we've been feeding her the protein porridge; to help her develop the required immunities. Make sure she gets lots of sleep, and let's get her some crackers to chew on. She should be fine soon."

"How soon is soon?" Mal barked in a very worried captainy voice.

"Soon is before this solstice ends; and before the rise of yon new moon." River warbled. "The moons shall rise again and the suns will set."

"What my little sister is saying is that Caroline should be fine by tomorrow night; these things typically run their course within twenty-four to thirty-six hours."

"Twenty-four hours of spewage?" Mal's eyes widened. This was not something he wanted to experience!

"No." Simon smiled inwardly. "The anti-nausea meds sho…" Simon started to speak to his Captain and realized as River was rolling her eyes at him that he was as usual talking at Mal; not to him and tried again. "The anti-nausea meds will help with her upset tummy." His careful phrasing mirrored his careful movements as he repacked his med kit and ushered River out of the Captain's cabin leaving him to clean up the mess. The Doc had done his time cleaning up vomit and other spilled bodily fluids. This was one mess he didn't need to clean up.

Mal got Caroline changed into a new night shirt. Inara and Kaylee had made her a couple of pretty nightgowns; but, his bao bei, precious daughter still preferred Simon's old shirt. He supposed it was soft and all that. He held Caroline for a few more minutes humming to her a tune that his mother had sung to him when he was her age.

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleepy little baby.

When you wake, you shall have,

All the pretty little horses.

Blacks and bays, dapples and greys,

Go to sleepy you little baby,

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleepy little baby.

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleepy little baby,

When you wake, you shall have,

All the pretty little horses.

Way down yonder, down in the meadow,

There's a poor wee little lamby.

The bees and the butterflies pickin' at its eyes,

The poor wee thing cried for her mammy.

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,

Go to sleepy little baby.

When you wake, you shall have,

All the pretty little horses.

Mal only got through the old lullaby once before her breathing evened out and she was sleeping peacefully. _Huh, had the doc put a sedative or something in with the meds_? His nian qing de, young one didn't usually drop off this quickly less sumpin' big had happened that day. Stretching he stood up and felt the muscles in his back crack and pop; he wasn't as young as he once was. _Buddha, he needed to do some cleaning before he hit his rack for the night._

Singing to himself. _All the pretty little horses. Blacks and bays, dapples and greys…_ Mal set about cleaning up the cabin; the last thing he wanted was the room to stink like vomit. _When you wake, you shall have, All the pretty little horses…_

Baobei – Precious

Nian qing de - Young one

Nǚ hair – Daughter

**E/N**: The mandatory end note. All The Pretty Little Horses is a traditional American Slave lullaby. It was originally sung by an African American slave who could not take care of her baby because she was too busy taking care of her master's child. She would therefore sing this song to her master's child. Originally, the lyrics were "birds and butterflies, peck at his eyes" but were changed to "birds and butterflies, flutter 'round his eyes" to make the lullaby less violent for younger children. (stolen from Wikipedia; so that everyone knows).

My mom used to sing it to me; and I've got a couple of recordings of it – I think my favorite is Kenny Loggins recording on his album "Return To Pooh Corners."


End file.
